Not Like Most Girls
by JPxLE
Summary: Oneshot. "Well, you don't know very much about girls, then, do you? Besides, I'm not like most girls." A story of friendship and chocolate fudge cake.


Lily Evans sat in a squashy armchair by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, finishing her Transfiguration homework.

It was late, and the common room was nearly empty; the only people remaining were one or two others finishing homework, a group of second years playing Exploding Snap, two fourth years immersed in a game of Wizard Chess, and a tiny black-haired girl who had fallen asleep on the couch in front of the fire.

Lily looked up as she heard someone clearing his throat. She rolled her eyes when she saw who it was. _James Potter_.

"What do you want, Potter?"

"Well.. I don't want you to think I'm ridiculous or anything, but you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. I just felt like I had to tell you."

Lily scowled and hastily gathered all her books and shoving them into her bag. She was too tired to come up with an appropriate rejection, so she just ignored him and walked away.

"Lily, you know you want me!"

James hurried after her as she headed for the girls dormitories. Lily ran up the stairs as quickly as she could, knowing what would happen when James tried to follow her, and not wishing to be on the staircase when it happened.

Sure enough, as she reached the top stair, the staircase transformed into a slide and Lily just about managed to make it to her dormitory without falling down the slide. She heard a faint yell as she closed the door to the room she shared with her best friends Alice and Marlene, as well as two other girls.

Lily dumped all her books onto her bed before finding the one she needed, and continued with her Transfiguration homework.

"Lily?" a sleepy voice called from a bed nearby.

Lily looked up to see Alice lying in her bed, half asleep and rubbing her eyes.

"Alice, go back to sleep."

Alice shook her head. "Wasn't asleep. Just resting my eyes 'til you came up."

Lily snorted.

"Seriously!" Alice continued. "What took you so long?"

"Oh, I was finishing the Transfiguration essay in the common room."

Alice looked at her incredulously. "That's not due for another week!"

"Yeah, well," Lily mumbled. "I wanted to get it done early.."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Well, now you can help me with mine, I guess."

"You know you don't need my help, Alice!" Lily scolded. "Besides, I'm not finished it yet."

"Oh? But you never come up until you've finished your homework."

"I was... interrupted." Lily explained with a scowl.

Alice caught on immediately. "Ah," she said sympathetically, "James Potter?"

"Who else?"

"What did he do this time?"

"Oh, another pick up line."

"The usual." Alice smirked.

"Mmm... Well, I'm tired. Talk to you in the morning, Al."

"Night, Lil."

"Night."

* * *

Lily awoke to the sounds of heavy breathing. She pulled aside the curtains that surrounded her bed and rubbed her eyes. She stretched her arms, yawned and checked the clock on her bedside table.

6:30. This was earlier than Lily usually woke up, so she decided to finish her Transfiguration essay from the day before. She had a shower to wake herself up and then put on her robes. She collected her Transfiguration book, as well as some parchment and a quill, before heading down the stairs to the common room.

As she entered the common room, she discovered to her dismay that she was not the only one who had decided to do some homework. James Potter was sitting in her favourite squashy armchair – the one closest to the fire. She groaned to herself and started walking towards a desk on the opposite side of the room. James looked up from his work and saw Lily.

"Lily!"

"What is it, Potter? I'm trying to get some work done here." Lily snapped.

"Um, I- you can have this chair." James smiled at her. Lily hated that smile; the one that made other girls swoon, but made Lily feel more like chucking a book at his head. "I know it's your favourite."

"Oh." Lily was taken aback. "Um, thanks."

James moved his own books onto the couch directly in front of the fire. Lily sat down on her favourite armchair and looked at James suspiciously. He had gone back to whatever it was he had been doing before she had arrived. Lily decided she'd better do the same, and took out the piece of parchment she had been working on. As soon as he heard the scratching of Lily's quill, James looked up at her discreetly, smiling. Lily hadn't insulted him at all.

Half an hour later, a a few people started entering the common room, some still yawning and rubbing their eyes. Alice and Marlene came down the stairs just as Lily was finishing her essay.

"Yeah," Alice was saying, "but she was up late last night, so I don't know how she could-"

"There she is!" Marlene interrupted, pointing at Lily, who was now, rolling up her parchment.

Alice and Marlene looked at each other, raising their eyebrows when they saw who she was with.

"Alice, Marly!" Lily called over to them, when she noticed them.

They walked over to Lily, and heard her say "This doesn't mean I like you, you know." to James, who just smirked in response. Lily rolled her eyes and walked over to Alice and Marlene.

Alice asked Lily if she was coming to breakfast with them.

"Of course," Lily replied, looking at her a little strangely. "Who else would I be going with? Wait here, I have to put my books back in the dorm." And with that, she hurried up the stairs to the dorm. A few seconds later, she came back down and the girls headed towards the Great Hall for breakfast.

"So, Lily." Alice said. "What were you doing with James Potter?"

"Studying."

Marlene raised an eyebrow. "No, seriously, what were you doing?"

"I _was_ studying. I woke up early so I came down to study and he was already there and-"

"So you sat down beside him?" Alice asked in disbelief. "I thought you hated the guy!"

"I _do_, but you didn't let me finish!" Lily exclaimed. "See, he was in my favourite chair, so I went over to the other side of the room, and then he said I could sit in his chair 'cause he knew it was my favourite, so I sat there and he sat on the couch beside it. We didn't even talk. I just did my homework and he did his. Oh yeah, I got that Transfiguration essay finished!"

"That was sweet of him." Alice commented.

"Can I borrow your Transfiguration essay?" Marlene asked.

Lily raised an eyebrow at both of them, before saying "Let's go to breakfast before it gets too crowded."

Alice and Marlene sighed, but consented.

Lily was buttering her second slice of toast when the Marauders walked into the Great Hall. As James walked past, he smiled at Lily. Lily started to smile back, before realising what she was doing, and rearranging her smile into a scowl. Alice noticed, and nudged Marlene, who had already noticed and was trying her best not to giggle.

"So, um, Lily." Alice started. "I guess James Potter isn't so bad after all, huh?"

"What?" Lily looked slightly alarmed. "Of course he is! So what if he let me sit in my favourite chair? He's still an arrogant, bullying toe-rag! … Why? You don't … _fancy_ him, do you?"

"No, silly, you _know_ who I like." Alice said, glancing at a boy further down the Gryffindor table.

"Oh, right, yeah." Lily realised.

"Yeah, so _I_ don't fancy James, but … do you?"

"What? Ew, no. That's preposterous! That's … That's-"

"Maybe a little bit true?" Marlene interrupted.

"No, it most certainly is not!" Lily said a little too loudly. And with that, she grabbed her school bag, as well as two more slices of toast, and stormed off to class. _How ridiculous! _she thought, _Me? Like James Potter? Pigs will fly before – oh wait, pigs could easily be given the ability to fly at Hogwarts... I should really stop using those Muggle expressions. Still though, I won't have the girls thinking I like James Potter. _And with that, she resolved to be even more insulting to James Potter than she had been before.

* * *

That evening, Lily was sitting back in her favourite armchair, this time working on a Potions assignment. A loud noise caused Lily to look from her work, but it was just the Marauders coming into the common room. James spotted her immediately and walked over to her.

"Are you Alfred's girlfriend?" he asked her.

"What?" she replied irritatedly. "No. Who on earth is -"

"You don't know Alfred?" James interrupted, grinning slyly.

"No, I do not know Alfred." Lily frowned.

"Oh. He said he was dating the most perfect girl in the school, and I just assumed it was you."

"You know Potter, that might actually have been clever if there was a single person named Alfred in this entire school."

James frowned.

"Now, if you don't mind, I have a Potions assignment I need to finish."

**

* * *

**

Lily hurried down the stairs at half past eight the following morning, pulling her hair back into a ponytail as she walked. As she neared the portrait hole, it opened and James stepped inside, holding a plate of toast.

"I, um, saw you weren't at breakfast, so I brought you some." he said, handing the plate to her "I, uh, thought you might be hungry."

"Oh. Um, thanks, Ja–Potter."

James grinned, noticing that Lily had almost called him James, instead of Potter.

"This _still _doesn't mean I like you, you know."

James smirked and Lily scowled.

"So, do your legs hurt?" James asked.

"What are you talking about Potter?"

"Do your legs hurt? Because you were running through my dreams all night."

"Yes, sadly. I was trying to run away from you. I guess it didn't work."

James frowned indignantly and watched as Lily hurried off, presumably to class. He smiled as he noticed her stop at the portrait hole and take a bite out of the toast he had given her.

Lily was in History of Magic, scribbling down notes as quickly as she could. She looked up when she heard the door opening. Professor Binns didn't notice James come to class ten minutes late and sneak quietly to the back of the classroom and sit down beside Sirius Black. _Ugh, how annoying_, she thought to herself, _Those two always get away with everything!_

"Ah, Mr. Pooter. When did you get here?" Professor Binns asked James. James smiled at the name Professor Binns has called him.

"Actually, Professor, it's Potter. And I've been here the whole class." James feigned innocence.

"Very well, Mr. Pooter." Professor Binns floated back to the top of the class mumbling something about old age and cheeky students.

Lily scowled.

* * *

When class was finished, Lily cleared up her things. She was one of the last people left in the classroom, as she was one of the only ones who actually took notes in History of Magic.

James was still in the classroom, not because he had to tidy away his notes, but because he was waiting for her, like he did after every class, with a new pick up line.

"How did you get to be so beautiful?" James asked her.

"I must have been given your share of beauty." Lily replied, smirking as James mocked being offended.

This continued throughout the day.

After Charms, he was waiting in the corridor for her.

"Pinch me! You're so pretty I must be dreaming."

"Gladly." Lily replied, pinching him.

"OW! Jeez, Evans, that hurt!" he told her as he walked away, rubbing his arm.

...

After Potions, he was waiting at the top of the stairs leading down to the dungeons.

"Y'know, Evans, I was outside last night and I decided to match each star to a reason why I love you. I was doing so good, when … I ran out of stars."

"You ran out of stars or you couldn't count any higher?"

"Well, both..."

Lily smirked and walked off to look for Alice and Marlene.

...

After Defence Against The Dark Arts, he stood by the door waiting for her.

"Potter!" she said exasperatedly, "Haven't you irritated me enough for one day?"

"No, Lily, I got a really clever one this time!" James told her.

Lily raised her eyebrow.

"If I were to ask you out, would your answer be the same as the answer to this question?"

He watched Lily's brow furrow as she tried to figure out a good comeback.

"Oh, screw you, Potter." she said, and with that, she stormed off.

* * *

Lily sat down to dinner, glad that classes were over. Now she would be able to avoid Potter for the rest of the day. What was taking Alice and Marlene so long?

"Is this seat empty?"

Lily silently groaned. Perfect, just when she'd thought her day couldn't get any worse.

"Yes, and this one will be if you sit down."

"I'll risk it." James said, as he sat down.

Lily debated in her head if she should stay or leave. On one hand, she didn't enjoy being near Potter and his pick up lines. On the other hand, she was extremely hungry and didn't want to miss dinner.

"I think I could make you really happy." James whispered in her ear. Lily saw a few girls scowling at her when they saw what he was doing.

"Why?" Lily asked sweetly. "Did you get expelled?"

She got up and hurried off to Gryffindor tower. James watched her leave, looking slightly bewildered.

* * *

When she reached the common room, she was surprised to see Alice and Marlene there already, chatting excitedly. Alice looked up and saw Lily walking over to them.

"Lily!" she shrieked. "Guess what? Frank asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him!"

"Oh my gosh, Alice, that's amazing! I'm so happy for you!" Lily ran over and hugged her best friend. Alice had been crushing on Frank Longbottom for weeks now.

Alice, Marlene and Lily started talking about what Alice would wear, and trying to guess where Frank would take her, when Lily looked at her watch and saw that it was half past seven.

"Um, I'm going to start on my homework, if that's okay?"

Alice and Marlene waved a hand at her impatiently.

"I'll take that as a yes, then." Lily muttered, heading towards the girls dormitories. Lily loved Alice, but she just got too obsessed when talking about Frank.

* * *

As Lily entered the common room with her books, she passed Alice and Marlene on their way up to the dormitories.

"We're just going up to try and pick out Alice's outfit for Hogsmeade!" Marlene told her as they rushed by.

"But Hogsmeade isn't for another week!" Lily called after them. "Shouldn't you be doing homework?!"

She sighed and started to walk over to her favourite chair, which, thankfully, was unoccupied.

...

She did her homework in peace, not noticing the goings-on around her, until her stomach rumbled loudly. She glanced up and the common room was deserted. She blinked disbelievingly and checked her watch. It was after midnight. Lily grumbled to herself.

Suddenly, she heard a soft noise coming from the staircase leading to the boys dormitories.

Lily looked over to the staircase and couldn't see anyone there. She muttered "Lumos" and pointed her wand towards the staircase to try and get a better view. Still nobody there. Lily shook her head and decided she must be hallucinating because she was so hungry.

Lily's stomach growled again, louder and longer than before. She closed her textbook a little too forcefully; she couldn't concentrate when she was this hungry.

A chuckle sounded across the room. Lily looked up to see James Potter appear out of thin air. Lily rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Was she hallucinating again? No, she decided, if she was hallucinating, she would be seeing someone she _wanted_ to see, not James Potter.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Lily asked coldly.

"I could ask you the same thing." he replied cheekily.

"How did you do that?" Lily continued.

"Do what?"

"You just... appeared out of nowhere. It's not possible to Apparate in Hogwarts and besides, you haven't taken your Apparition test yet, you were too young last year. So how'd you do it?"

"Keeping tabs on me, eh?" James smirked. She hadn't noticed him moving towards her and now he was standing only a few inches away.

Lily scowled and turned away from him.

"Wait." James said as he grabbed her arm. "You're hungry, right?"

"No." she glowered. Lily felt herself redden slightly as her stomach rumbled in disagreement. James raised an eyebrow.

"Well." James told her in a mock defeated tone, "If you're sure... I was just heading down for a delicious chocolate fudge cake. Good thing you're not coming, really. Now I can eat it _all_ myself."

"Chocolate. Fudge. Cake?"

"Better be off, then, my cake awaits me." James said as he turned his head exaggeratedly towards the portrait hole.

"No, wait." Lily whimpered. "Bring me back some?"

James turned to face Lily, grinning at her. "Give a girl cake and she will eat for a night. Show the girl where to get the cake and she will never go hungry."

Lily cocked her head and stared at James. He smirked, before grabbing her hand and pulling her close to him.

"Right, you can't tell _anyone_ about what I'm about to show you, okay?" James said to her as she reached inside his robes.

"Don't worry, I wasn't planning to", Lily muttered under her breath.

"Here it is", James announced as he pulled out a shimmering cloak.

Lily gasped. "Is that what I think it is?"

James grinned. "That depends. Do you think it's an Invisibility Cloak?"

Lily didn't reply, she just stared at the cloak.

"Food time!" James proclaimed, throwing the cloak over Lily and himself. He grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her through the portrait hole.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Lily murmured. "We're going to get caught, we're going to get caught, we're -"

James put his hand over her mouth.

"We're not going to get caught. We're invisible, remember? How do you think I get away with so much? It's your last year at Hogwarts. Live a little, okay?"

"Mmfffh." came Lily's reply, which James took to be affirmative and he removed his hand.

"Good." he whispered. "To the kitchens!"

"The kitchens?" Lily repeated in awe.

"You've never been? Hmm. Doesn't surprise me, really. Like I said, it's your last year, live a little."

Lily remained silent.

"Ah, here we are!" James stopped suddenly, pulling Lily back. Lily looked at him, confused. James gestured towards a painting of a bowl of fruit.

"All you have to do is tickle the pear like this..." James said, following his instructions as he explained. Lily watched as the pear began to squirm, chuckling, and turned into a large green door handle. James grabbed it and pulled the door open, taking Lily's hand and leading her inside. He removed the cloak covering Lily and himself.

...

Lily gasped when she saw the kitchen. It was an enormous high-ceilinged room, as big as the Great Hall. There were four long tables identical to the tables in the Great Hall. There were brass pots and pans stacked against the stone walls and there was a great brick fireplace at the other end of the room. House-elves scurried around, busy with their work. One of the house-elves noticed them and hurried over to them.

"What can Pippi do for James Potter, sir?" the house-elf asked meekly.

"The usual, please, Pippi."

"Of course, sir. Right away, sir."

James took Lily's hand and led her to one of the four tables. He smiled when he noticed that Lily didn't remove her hand, but he knew she probably hadn't noticed that he was holding her hand.

"Wow." Lily uttered, "This is amazing."

"Yeah." James agreed. "And see these four tables? These are directly below the ones in the Great Hall. The house-elves put the food here and it's magically transported to the matching tables above."

"I always wondered where it came from. I used to think Dumbledore made it appear, but then we learned about Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, so..." Lily trailed off.

"Your chocolate fudge cake, sir."

Lily's eyes widened as she turned around to see four house-elves carrying a very large tray which was holding an even larger chocolate cake smothered in delicious-looking fudge icing.

James cut a generous slice, put it on a plate and offered it to Lily.

"You can have that, it's too small for me." Lily told him.

James' eyes widened. "I thought girls didn't eat very much!"

"Well, you don't know very much about girls, then, do you? Besides, I'm not like most girls."

"You most definitely aren't." James said with such sincerity that it made Lily feel a little uncomfortable. She averted his gaze and cut herself a slice of cake.

"Ah, that's more like it!" exclaimed Lily as she took the slice of cake she had cut for herself.

James chuckled. "Absolutely not like most girls."

There was silence for a while as Lily and James ate their cake, but it wasn't an awkward silence, it was a comfortable quietness.

"Lily, I'm sorry if I annoy you a lot, but it's just... I don't really know any other way to get your attention. I just..." he reddened a little, "I really like you and, well, most girls would like the attention. But you're not-"

"Like most girls", Lily finished with him.

"Yeah..." James looked at his cake, "but I'll stop bugging you if that's what you want."

"Well... You haven't been _too _annoying tonight. In fact, I kind of had... fun. So, if you want, we can be friends?"

James beamed. "I'd like that. Wow, what're people gonna think? James Potter and Lily Evans: Friends. There's one nobody saw coming."

Lily laughed. "But seriously though, I really did have a good time tonight. You seem... different. Less of a toe-rag and more like a half-way decent human being."

"I guess that's as close to a compliment as I'm going to get, huh? This is the real me, you just never got to know me before. So, friends?" he held out his hand for a handshake. Lily ignored his hand and wrapped her arms around him. She leaned her head against his chest and whispered "Friends."

Lily yawned.

"C'mon, let's get you back to Gryffindor Tower before you fall asleep." James murmured to Lily.

"M'kay." came her sleepy response.

...

The walk back to Gryffindor Tower was rather slow and quiet because Lily was half asleep, but James enjoyed every second of it. When they finally reached the Fat Lady, she shook her head disapprovingly at them, but let them in eventually.

"Okay, Lily, we're here." James told her.

"Thanks for showing me the kitchens, James."

"Any time. Hey, you called me James!"

"And?"

"Well, you've never done that before. I like it."

Lily smiled. "Well, _James_, I'm sorry I ruined whatever plans you had for the night."

"What plans?"

Lily frowned. "Well if you didn't have plans, why were you in the common room so late?"

"I saw you were here."

"What? What do you mean you _saw_ I was here?"

James chuckled. "I'll show you some time."

"Well, goodnight, then."

"Wait, Lily, before you go... Um, well you know the Hogsmeade trip in two days? I was wondering if you'd want to come with me. Well, not just me, but y'know with the Marauders. As friends?"

"Oh, James, I don't know..."

"C'mon, it'd be great. You're friends with Remus and you're friends with me now too, and I know you'd like Sirius once you get to know him. And Peter's very... Well, I'm sure you'll like him too."

Lily laughed a little. Peter wasn't very popular, but he seemed a nice enough boy, if a little timid. "Well, I mean, I wouldn't want to ruin your trip..."

"But Lily, you wouldn't ruin it. You'd make it 100 times better! I always enjoy spending time with you."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Even when we're fighting?"

"Well, not as much as when we get along..."

Lily laughed. "All right then."

"You'll go?" James asked, shocked.

"Yes, yes, I'll go." Lily giggled.

James swept Lily off her feet into a bone-crushing bear hug. Lily whispered good-night and left for bed. James stood rooted to the spot for a few minutes before he went to bed himself.

* * *

**Author's Note: **I'm debating whether to keep this as a one-shot or keep writing. What do you think? Want to read more?


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